From the April 2024 Cornerstone Newsletter

The first few months of 2024 have been busy! Our Southeast Navigators have fanned out across Georgia, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Florida to help at-risk communities build climate resilience. It’s a sight to behold. 

In this time of unprecedented federal investment in disadvantaged communities, the landscape of technical support, funding, and capacity building assistance is a hot mess. New programs are coming online almost daily and leaders in at-risk communities simply do not have the time to work their way through the maze to find the help they so desperately need.

At the same time we are being approached by many organizations asking for help finding communities that are well suited to their programs. This is surprising, but also not surprising. These organizations have great programs, but have trouble connecting with the communities that could benefit from their help the most. It is a common refrain we hear from our resilience partners.

Enter our Navigators.

Their job in the Southeast is to help communities that have received the 72 Community Disaster Resilience Zone designations across the four states build resilience. They find out from the community what it is trying to do and then journey into the maze of resources to help local leaders find and take advantage of the programs that can help them. Communities lead the way and our Navigators help them get where they need to go.

Early reports from the communities our Navigators are helping are promising. So promising, in fact, that we are working to expand the Navigator Network nationwide. More on that soon.